Time to pay school piperLeland Duvall, the Sage of Crow Mountain, spent years studying and writing about the economy and taxes for the late Arkansas Gazette. Today we borrow one of his most memorable phrases: "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind that tree." Nobody likes to pay taxes, but when the goal is clear, and the need irrefutable, higher taxes can be justified. The need to rescue our schools has been evident for years. We are currently cheating ...

Making a case for optimismA little competition is a healthy thing, but eventually folks who are neighbors need to remember that the boundaries that separate them are mostly imaginary, created for convenience and deserve to be ignored when it will benefit everyone. Such is the case - and such is the cause for hope - in Monday's first meeting of an advisory board created to guide the River Valley Intermodal Facilities Authority. The Authority has a goal of creating an in...

TV grandpa sadly missedKnock-knock. Who's there? Unfortunately, the long-suffering victim of so many knock-knock jokes won't be sharing any more laughs with us or our children. Bob Keeshan, better known to generations as Captain Kangaroo, died last week. "Nice" was always the key word with Captain Kangaroo, for those of us who grew up watching him every morning on a CBS affiliate. Perhaps "pleasant" would be more accurate. Mr. Rogers, another children's TV icon who ...

Debt's risks still ignoredTax and spend? Or tax-cut and spend? Democrats and Republicans like to toss jabs at each other to try to draw distinctions on how to handle the federal budget. What they're ignoring is the key similarity • they agree on the spending part, and they seem willing to risk spending this country into the poorhouse. The Congressional Budget Office this week predicted a federal deficit this year of $477 billion, the highest ever. And since its report ...

Lawmakers win reprieveBy James Jefferson Appointment of a special master to monitor the state's compliance with a court order to overhaul public education could help ease the political burden of enacting unpopular reforms. The state Supreme Court reclaimed control of the long-running court challenge to Arkansas' school funding formula Thursday, determining after oral arguments that the Legislature had failed to comply with its November 2002 order to overhaul the sy...

Lawmakers get a surpriseThe only surprise to come out of Thursday's action by the Supreme Court was the surprise experienced by many state legislators. Their responses were far from eloquent. "Already? Wow." "Oh my gosh, wow." "I don't have any thoughts." (Granted, a parenthetical comment made reference to the court action.) The same lawmaker continued his lack of thought: "What we have to do is represent the people and do what they want us to." Sorry, but the voice ...

Restore the cooperationThe long-running dissension over ambulance plans broke into public debate last week. After reviewing the final draft of the Russellville Fire Department's proposal to provide ambulance transport in the city limits, we can only affirm our first reaction, expressed in two editorials last year: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The fire department currently provides first response to medical emergencies with trucks dispatched from its four station...

Opportunity to advanceOpportunity can be a slippery thing. It may knock at the door, but we must choose whether to answer. Sometimes, an equal opportunity can be denied by unfair policies and practices. Both aspects of opportunity were evident in articles in Wednesday's Courier. The Civil Service Commission took down a barrier to opportunity for Russellville Police officers who might be interested in winning a promotion. And city employees can receive a gift of opp...

Kroc legacy leads onwardSeveral years ago we used the philanthropy of the late Joan Kroc, the widow of the McDonald's restaurant chain founder, to illustrate a point about the overwhelming generosity of Arkansans. Her gifts that year were generous but paled as a percentage of her presumed income in comparison to the generosity of the typical southerner, who is known for gladly sharing a larger portion of what little he or she may have. Although the point is still a g...

School fate goes back to courtBy James Jefferson They persuaded the courts that Arkansas' method for funding public education is unfair and inadequate, but they disagree on how judges should react to legislators missing a court deadline for enacting remedies. Lawyer Bill Lewellen of Marianna wants the state Supreme Court to take over the public school system that it declared unconstitutional in November 2002 because the Legislature missed the Jan. 1, 2004, deadline the cou...

City budget shows flawsToo much month left at the end of the money. Most of us have experienced that in our family budgets; it's never pleasant and is rarely easy to solve. Making the minimum payment on the credit cards is one thing, but using the credit cards to buy groceries and pay the mortgage may be a sign there's a deeper problem. The city of Russellville finds itself in that situation now, with a $250,709 shortfall predicted for this, the first month of a new...

Increasing the peaceThe message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lives on today, in the hearts and souls of people around the world. Among them are the members of the River Valley King Team, a group of area youth. Its members will be among those involved in the annual "Bridging the Gap" observances today in Russellville honoring the late civil rights leader. The actual King holiday falls on Monday. Part of the responsibility of being a King Team member is memorizing...

Today is a good day for a dietBy Phil Lamb editor@couriernews.com It's hard enough to admit a personal flaw to yourself. Admitting it to thousands of readers is almost unbearable, even when that flaw is obvious to anyone who looks. You've heard of yo-yo dieters • those people whose weight goes up and down over the years. I should wish. At least the yo-yo spends a portion of the time at the lower end of its range. I'm more of a paddle-ball dieter. Remember those 99-cent toy...

Let all stay accountableAccountability is a big issue in the schools. Kids have known this for a long time. "The dog ate my homework" will never work more than once, if that often. The latest special session of the state Legislature has worked to extend a formal system of accountability to school districts and individual schools. SB33 would create a system of tests, reports, rewards and sanctions with the goal of holding students, teachers and schools accountable for...

Open a door to top officeThe election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California brings to mind a constitutional question. The answer to this question is clear, but perhaps it's no longer the right answer. Schwarzenegger is following in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, another popular actor who turned to politics and became governor of that state. But for Schwarzenegger, the trail stops in the governor's office. Unlike Reagan, he won't be able to advance to the...

Huckabee invites courtFiguring his call for the Legislature to save Arkansas public schools from the courts has fallen on deaf ears, Gov. Mike Huckabee is now inviting the courts to save the schools from the Legislature. Last week, the House stripped Huckabee's education overhaul plan of its key component - consolidation - and negotiations to save his 500-student enrollment minimum fell through, prompting the governor to rethink his long-held disdain for court supe...

A tale of two recoveriesCan it really be the best of times and the worst of times, at the same time? The most recent U.S. News and World Report calls it "Boom Times" and asks how high the economy can fly. The Regional Economist, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis, notes the economy is back on track "but once again leaves many workers behind." It's disconcerting, and more than a little worrisome, to think that both could be accurate. There's no d...

Local boys who do goodJohn Daly's exploits on the golf course and colorful behavior off it tend to overshadow the fact that he's a local boy done good who's still a local boy. More importantly, he gives back to the community that raised him. That's what makes his donation of a new home for the Boys and Girls Club in Dardanelle especially pleasing to see. The club got a late Christmas gift Dec. 30 when Daly purchased the former Sands Fitness Center on Highway 7 next...

Governor vows to fightGov. Mike Huckabee plans to push consolidation, with or without the Legislature. Amid hopeful signs last week that legislative efforts might yield tough new school accountability measures and a new school-funding formula to replace the unconstitutional old scheme, Huckabee maintained that reorganizing public schools is the key to improving education in Arkansas. He renewed his threat from summer to lead a drive for consolidation by initiated a...